


Buddy System

by LittleMissPixieStix



Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: Fluff, Gen, How Do I Tag, Not Beta Read, Team Bonding, Team Fluff, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-17
Updated: 2016-04-17
Packaged: 2018-06-02 17:42:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6576181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleMissPixieStix/pseuds/LittleMissPixieStix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Engineer's offered to take some of the others to town, if they want to go.  That's why he has a Scout and Pyro in tow.</p>
<p>Unfortunately for Scout, someone's got to keep an eye on Pyro so that the town isn't burned down.  To keep the both of them out of trouble, Engineer lays down one big ground rule for the two of them to follow, not that Pyro minds that much:</p>
<p>They have to stick to the dreaded buddy system.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Buddy System

**Author's Note:**

> You can find this fic on tumblr here: http://littlemissfemscout.tumblr.com/post/142929204967/buddy-system
> 
> This is not beta'd or anything. I was just in the mood to write Scout/Pyro fluffy-ish stuff, so I just smashed it out as time allowed. Will reread again later and clean it up more, but just have it as-is for now.

It wasn’t often that the team got to go to town.  Usually supplies were sent to them, giving them no reason to take the long drive to civilization.

Today, though, Engineer had needed to run to get some supplies for his newest project, and had offered to give a lift yo anyone that wanted to go with him.  That was why Pyro and Scout were riding in the cab with him now.

Scout had been the first one who wanted to go.  But after seeing the Bostonian eagerly raise his hand to go with Engie, Pyro had mimicked the action, wildly waving their hand about to make sure they were noticed by making themselves impossible to miss.

The Texan had been talking to the two of them, mostly Scout, giving them the protocol they were expected to follow while gallivanting around the town.  From what Engineer could tell, though, neither of the youngin’s were actually listening to him.

“-And I need you to ta’ behave out there, alright?  Keep each other in check and make sure you don’t get on any worse side of the townsfolk-” Pausing, Engineer looked over at Scout, who had a spacey, bored look on his face, and then to Pyro, who he had no chance of reading, “Because they already don’t like any of us, and you don’t want them ta’ treat either of ya’ horribly.  Any more horribly then they have to.”

Scout’s expression stayed the same.

“Wouldn’t be surprised if an aggressive go-getter decided to take the initiative and try to attack one of you.  Pyro doesn’t exactly blend in,” Engineer decided to test the kids listening skills, “…Wouldn’t be surprised if they unleashed the laser piranhas’ on ya’-”

Still no response.

Engineer sighed.

“…The Red Sox lost 12 to 2 to them Yanks.”

That got the boy’s attention.  Scout’s head jerked up and he looked over at the Engineer before glancing at the radio, wondering how the Texan got the score if the game wasn’t playing.  Surely he hadn’t figured it out by listening to The Doobie Brothers.

“You listening now?” Engineer asked, “I need you to keep an eye on Pyro, alright?  Stick by them and make sure they don’t get into trouble.”

“Why don’t you just take them with you?” Scout asked.

“To a store with oil, gas, and lighter fluid?” Engineer said slowly, putting an emphasis on each word, “Already been told not to bring them back there.  Need you to watch them while you’re doing whatever it is you wanna do.”

“Do I have to?” Scout asked, putting his feet up on the dash.

“If you want a ride back, yes.” Engineer told him, “They won’t cause you too much trouble, Scout, they like you.  Just treat ‘em civilly, like a person, and they be happy to tag along with you.”

“Fine.  But only ‘cause I don’t want to walk back,” Scout said. “If I’da know that I was gonna have to be babysitting Mumbles-”

“Scout.” Engineer said, the tone making the one word serve as both a scolding and an advisory for stopping before he dug himself in too deep, “It’s only for a few minutes.  An hour, tops.  Don’t give me a reason to tan your hide for misbehavin’, son.”

“Okay, Engie.” Scout said, wisely shutting up.

The Texan may deny that he was like a parent to the team, but he could certainly scold as well as any haggard mother or father could.

When they got to town, Engineer parked his truck in the downtown area, and made sure that the other two were listening to him as he spoke.

“If you all finish up, feel free to just just come hang around on the truck,” He said, locking up the door, “Just sit in the bed.  If I finish up first, I’ll meet you two back here, alright?”

“Sure thing,” Scout said as Pyro gave a thumbs up to the Engineer.  Both replies were enough to satisfy Engineer, and he gave them both a slight nod as he started to head off.

“Remember to stick together, you two.” He said, “Buddy system it together until I meet up with ya’ again.”

Scout watched as the Engineer turned the corner, making a face to his back.

“Buddy system,” Scout grumbled.  What did the man think, that they were two year olds wandering around town?

Pyro reached for Scout’s hand, happy that he was ready to use the buddy system, making sure to keep a tight grip on their pink purse.  They didn’t like wandering around town alone. 

Sighing, Scout slowly walked along, letting Pyro trail right next to him, hands held tight.  Admittedly, it was hard to keep his sour mood up while there was a Pyro skipping alongside him.  Didn’t mean that he wasn’t going to try.

He lead them towards the town’s post office, placed right next to the town’s general store.  He wanted to go see if his mom had replied to his last letter.  One of his brothers had just gone to prison, the big city one not just a state jail, and his mother has having a hard time dealing with it.  He was too, but he was trying to be strong for her.

As he took a step towards the post office, Pyro seemed intent on dragging him over towards the general store, where the candy in the window was giving a sort of siren call to the Pyro.

“No, we’re going this way.” Scout said firmly.  It wasn’t firm enough, though, because Pyro still was trying to head towards the other store.  

“Pyro-” Scout said, planting his feet.  Pyro may act immaturely at times, but they still had the strength of a full grown person thing, and it was easy for them to get their way if they tugged hard enough.

Fed up, Scout retaliated with a strong tug, unbalancing Pyro enough that they both started stumbling over towards the post office.

“We’re going _this_ way,” Scout said firmly, a growl in his voice, “We’ll go to your stupid store in a minute, but we gotta go here _first_.“

Heaving a large, over dramatic sigh, Pyro finally let Scout have his way.  The two of them waited in the long line, Pyro tapping their feet and bopping along to a song that only they could hear.  Only Scout seemed to acknowledge the stares that came from the other customers; Pyro seemed content to stay in the world in their head.

Scout finally made it up to the front of the line, and tried his darnedest to act smooth in front of the cute post office worker lady despite the walking latex suit bouncing behind him.

“You come here often?” He asked.

“I work here.” was the reply.

“Ah, uh, yeah.  Yeah, you do” Scout said a bit more nervously this time “Listen, uh, you get any mail for a ‘Johnny Rockets’?”

“Nope.” was the immediate reply.

“You didn’t even look.” He pointed out.

“Don’t have to.  Nothing came that hasn’t been put on a truck to be delivered locally.”

“Listen, babe, if you want something to be put a delivery truck to come then I-…” Scout paused, realizing what just came out of his mouth, “Wait, hold on, that didn’t make any sense…You’re not giving me much of an opening here.”

“I try not to.”

“Hey, uh-” Scout paused to read her nametag, “Ann.  Ya’ got a nice attitude, I like it a lot, and I would _really_ love to get to know you better-”

Pyro, for some reason, chose this moment to interrupt Scout and grab at his arm.   There was a quick series of gentle tugs, not enough to force Scout anywhere but enough to get his attention, and Scout tried his best to ignore it.

“Sir, you and your…friend are disturbing the customers.  We have nothing for you,” Ann said, “I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” 

“Yeah, ah, okay,” Scout said with a barely held together nod and smile, “We’ll be going right now.”

Scout pulled Pyro outside and immediately turned on his heel to look into their lens-covered eyes.

“What the hell was that about?” He asked them, “Why did you have to have a freakout right then?”

Pyro started to muffedly reply, but Scout pushed them back away from him, cutting them off.

“Listen, I’m tired of you, you freak.” Scout said, turning and walking away from Pyro, “Why can’t you just go away and leave me alone?”

The soft whine that came out of Pyro almost broke the shell of anger around Scout’s heart.  Almost.  Instead, he stood fast, taking deep breaths to try to calm himself down before he turned back to deal with Pyro.  Engineer had told him to be nice, so yelling at them probably didn’t qualify.

“Pyro, listen. we’ve got to find a middle ground here.” Scout said as he turned around to face them, “You can’t just be-”

Pyro was gone.  In the minute he had had his back turned, Pyro had vanished.

Oh crap.

Frantically looking around, Scout didn’t see Pyro anywhere, so he took the next logical step: he took off running in a random direction, hoping it was the one that Pyro had taken.

He scanned the area as he ran, keeping his eyes peeled for a suit-wearing pyromaniac.

Oh God, he had let a pyromaniac wander off alone.  That was bad.  That was really really bad.

Forget the damage that they could potentially do to the town, he was going to be in so much trouble if Engineer found out.

Before he realized it, Scout had nearly made a full loop around the small town, and had not seen Pyro.  Where the hell could they have gone?

Racing around a corner, Scout immediately raced back behind it when he saw Engineer exiting a store, carrying a few bags.

He couldn’t let Engineer see him without Pyro.  He couldn’t.

Peeking back barely around the corner, he saw Engineer carefully looking around and surveying his surroundings, pausing, tense, as he looked at his truck.

The man’s main foe was a Spy, of course he was always on top of his game and on the defensive.  This was the guy that you didn’t want to try to have to sneak past.  Scout was going to need to take another route.

Doubling back around the building, he raced up another block back behind the cover of stores, trying to put some distance between him and the hyper-aware Texan.

Once he was able to finally sneak around Engineer, the man had headed towards a gas station in the other direction, and continue on his search, he found himself right back in front of the damn post office.

As Scout was about to start his next lap around town, he was cut off by a small group of kids racing past him and towards the general store.  Despite their playful giggles and banter, he was still in a somber mood.

Pyro stepped out of the store at the same time, looking down and zipping up their little purse.  The kids, startled by the sight of the pyromaniac, tripped over themselves to put some distance between them and it.  One small boy, the obvious runt of the group, actually did trip and fell onto the street.  His friends, or brothers, left him, scrambling away from the gas-mas wearing monster.

Noticing the kid, Pyro quickly bumbled over and squatted down next to him.  When Scout saw them, holding something out towards the kid, he ran over, terrified that the tyke was about to be set on fire.  

But when he got closer, he saw that Pyro was actually giving the scared child a lollipop.  They watched as the kid slowly stood up, keeping a way eye on Pyro before slowly walking away and giving them a nervous wave as they left.

Once the kid was gone, Pyro finally seemed to notice that Scout was watching them.  They stood, carefully watching as Scout stepped closer, opting to take their own small step back away from him.

“Pyro, I didn’t mean I wanted you to leave,” He said quickly, doing his best to make sure that his team mate didn’t leave again, “Stay.”

Pyro gave a muffled, unintelligible reply.  The tilt of their head clearly showed that they were doubting the sincerity of that statement.

“I mean it.” Scout said, “I shouldn’t have yelled at you.  I’ve just been going through some stuff, family stuff, but it wasn’t fair to take it out on you.”

Pyro gave a nod, though they were still cautiously watching him even as they started to step closer.  They held out there hand to him.  Scout reached out, thinking they wanted to hold hands again, but stopped when he realized that they were handing him something.

A lollipop.  They were giving him a lollipop.  Their last one.

They had bought two.  One for themselves and one for him.

Instead of taking the sucker out of their hand, Scout pulled them in for a hug.  They were surprised by the action, by that didn’t mean that they didn’t like it.  Even though they were tense in his grip, they soon melted into the hug, nearly picking up the boy as they hugged him back.  The front of their mask was pressed lightly against his cheek in what may or may not have been a small kiss.

Pyro would say that it had been one, if anyone could understand their later, unseen blushing retelling of the tale.

Now Scout wasn’t usually a touchy-feely type.  Hugs were normally for little kids who needed their mommy.  Right now, though, that kid was Scout, and he needed this hug, not that he would ever admit any of that.  But he didn’t figure that Pyro would either, seeing as how,  like, nobody on the team could understand them.

The hug only lasted for only a minute, probably not even that, but it was all that had needed.

“You ready to head back to the truck?” He asked as let go, casually brushing his shirt and acting like he hadn’t just been the world’s biggest sap, “Engie’s probably waitin’ on us.”

Probably, his ass.  Scout knew that Engineer was basically done with his tasks; he had even see the man put his bags away.  The only difference this time around was that when he headed back to the truck he was going to have Pyro with him.

“And, uh, Pyro?” Scout added slowly, “Can we _not_ tell Engie about the two of us splittin’ up back there?”

Pyro held out his hand to Scout again, giving him a small, enthusiastic nod, and the two of them headed back to Engineer’s truck together.  The Texan was leaning back against the driver side door, obviously waiting on them, and he perked up when he saw the two of them heading over his way.

“There the two of you are,” Engineer said, “Been waitin’ for you two to show up again.  I got y’all something.”

“What did you get?” Scout asked nervously, terrified it was a paddling.

“Ice cream.” Engineer said with a bright smile, “Got you a bar and Pyro a milkshake.  Figured you two deserved something for not burning the town down, ya’ know?”

“Yeah, Scout said slowly, surprised that he had gotten away with breaking the buddy system thing.

“Pyro, would you mind putting these bags into the back with you as you crawl in?  Already jammed enough at Scout’s feet,” Engineer said, motioning to the bags he had left on the ground

Pyro, happy to oblige him, scooped all the bags up and began clambering into the back row on the truck, doing their best to not spill too much of of the sacks.  Scout started to head around to the passenger side of the vehicle, but a sudden yank on the collar of his shirt stopped him short.

“Ya’ know, if you had come back here _again_ without Pyro, you wouldn’t be able to sit for a week.” The Texan said to Scout in a harsh whisper. The chill of an ice cream bar pressed against his neck had never felt so threatening before. 

Scout gulped.

“You, ah-…Again?” Scout said with a nervous laugh, “You saw me?”

“Spied you racing by alone in the truck’s mirror.  Figured I’d give you a chance to clean up your mess. ” Engineer told him, “You have no idea how glad I am that you did, son.  No idea.  I ain’t happy that you let it happen, but I’m proud of you for fixin’ it.”

The ice cream bar was shoved into his hands, and he received a strong pat on the back, as Engineer smiled over as Pyro.

“You two ready to move out?” He asked as he passed Pyro’s milkshake through the open door to them, “Watch your feet darlin’,  I’m closing the door now.  Scout, get goin’ ‘round to the front now, would ya’?  It’s time for us ta’ head home.”

Scout raced around to the front, not wishing to anger Engineer any more.  As he strapped himself, he thought over the Texan’s words.

Home was an odd name to call the base.  Home was used for the place that you felt like you belonged, not a team of mish-mashed mercs.

But…

When those mercs gave you hugs, bought you ice cream, played ball with you, had your back at times, made dinner for you, and put up with at least some of your shenanigans, was the use of the word “home” really so wrong?

As Scout bit into his ice cream bar, and listened to Engineer sing, and Pyro mumble, along with the song  _Viva Las Vegas_ playing on the radio, he didn’t think so.

He didn’t think so at all.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! =)


End file.
